Mary had left her home in the middle of the night, taking just the clothes on her back and her ten year old daughter.  A friend had agreed to drive them to a shelter, nearly a hundred miles from where she lived.  The friend wanted Mary to go to the hospital to see about her bruises, but Mary was too afraid—she just wanted to get away.  

The next morning she discovered she was finally out of harms way and had nothing but her child - no friends of family in the strange town; no fresh clothes; no money or food; no ID; no birth certificates; no social security cards; no bank account; just her daughter, herself, and one set of clothes for each of them.   

She knew if she returned home another beating would be waiting for her, worse than the one which had convinced her to flee in the first place. Alone, afraid, and seeing little hope that her situation would improve, she wondered if the beating might not be worth it to go home again.  The shelter workers told her about the availability of free legal aid.  The nearest office was nearly a hundred miles away and Mary had no way to get there.  Even if she could have called for an appointment, she had no transportation and no one she could trust with whom to leave her daughter. 

Fortunately for Mary, an alternative did exist for her:  Remote video intake sponsored by Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas (“Legal Aid”), the Texas Governor’s Criminal Justice Division Victims of Crime Act program (“VOCA”), and the local public library.  She was able to walk just a few blocks down the street to the designated remote intake site and in less than ten minutes she was speaking with an attorney. 

In 2004, Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas (Legal Aid) received a grant from the VOCA program to help victims of crime with emergency legal aid.  A portion of that grant was dedicated to provide video conference equipment so that more victims would be able to receive that emergency legal help.   And, because Legal Aid attorneys would be saving the time and expense of traveling 90 miles to meet clients, they would be able to help more people.  

That technology grant was used to pilot a project in four Legal Aid offices: Abilene, Amarillo, Lubbock, and Midland.  The premise of the project was to place a remote video conference terminal in an outlying county and connect that site to the appropriate Legal Aid branch office location.  The set-up process involved video conferencing equipment installed both in the main office and at the remote site, connected by a high-speed internet connection.  The equipment in the main office consists of a camera and monitor, linked to the relay equipment and connected to the high-speed data line.  The equipment at the remote site consists of a regular television, with a relay box and camera attached to the television, and a fax machine.

The Lubbock project has its video conference equipment set up at its main office in downtown Lubbock, and the remote site located in Seminole, Texas, some 90 miles away.  Prior to the implementation of this project, Legal Aid held a monthly legal clinic in Seminole, which routinely saw between three and six applicants.  Occasionally, we would see no more than one or two people.  West Texas Opportunities Inc., located at 311 SE Ave C, Seminole, Texas, a long-time partner of Legal Aid, agreed to host the remote site.  In February of 2005, the equipment was set up and the process of remote interviewing began. 

 Beatrice Guynes, the office manager for West Texas Opportunities in Seminole, and Rebecca Martinez, one of the office workers, were trained on the operation of the equipment, and participated in a demonstration.  Nancy Mojica, the equal justice volunteer coordinator for Legal Aid in Lubbock, and Keith Bradford, the attorney assigned to the project received similar training—and the project was set to kick off. 

The first remote video intake was taken on May 12, 2005.  The client was able to go to the West Texas Opportunities office and fill out some initial paperwork.  Then the Legal Aid office was contacted to turn on the video system.  The attorney and the client were conducting a face-to-face interview within minutes.  

Since that date, Legal Aid has scheduled an average of two video conferences per week.  Since the inception of the project Legal Aid has taken more than one hundred video intakes, saving untold time and cost in not having to conduct interviews at the remote location.  The response has been very favorable, and one of the private attorneys who works in a different remote county has inquired about the feasibility of putting a remote video site in his county.  The ease of use of the equipment and the way it can be turned on and in use in minutes is very appealing to the client community.  It has also been a tremendous boon to the Legal Aid staff, and while it will not replace in person interviews, the ability to see the client {and have the client see the attorney} is a considerable improvement over the old telephone intake system.  The new technology enables Legal Aid to put a face with the voice, and is changing the way we “see” our clients in outlying communities.

(Article written by George Elliott, Managing Attorney, Legal Aid’s Lubbock office)